


Losers in Love

by skid



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 13:32:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13591101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skid/pseuds/skid
Summary: W.I.P.For Sarsaparillia - I love you so much I am writing this fic for you. Our mutual hate for Elliot and my undying hate for Alex are still unrealized. I have decided to humanize them in this unedited, relatively freeform, possibly crap, one shot.Here follows a campy, drug store style-esque, romance between two gay boys in a town full of lesbians and straight elders. I mean, yeah, that's what Stardew Valley really is. Be Honest with yourself.Oh, and also friendship.





	Losers in Love

"...and though the sea air was cold, his heart was now warm."

Elliot mumbled the final words to his latest project as he scribbled them out in adequate (if not entirely legible) handwriting. He was a genius, he was an artist, he was...utterly perfect and he wanted to share himself with the world! But first he had to type up his foolscap so that he could send it to his publisher. Only when he had a draft copy would he do a reading at the library. Elliot brushed his long wavy red hair over his shoulders and stood, shaking out his arms, he felt a small but sharp pinch and looked down at his breast pocket to see a tiny crab that had somehow found it's way in there. He smiled his ever enigmatic smile and detached the crab as carefully as possible and opened the door to put him out on the beach. That done he was able to get back to work.

_______________________________

There was no way around it. Alex was dumb. Sure, the stereotype of a dumb jock was kind of painful to witness but when you lived it? It was agony! Knowing that your best quality was your fantastic ability at sports and your bitchin' bod was alright but Alex wanted to be the full package. He would really like to have been gifted with the brawn and the brain. He just received another rejection letter from a college he had applied to, they rejected him on the grounds that his grades were only good in sports.

Oh well...there was always another focus...women. Who was he kidding, it was a poor consolation. The women of Stardew Valley were either married, uninterested, uninteresting, or hella gay. And even if those things weren't true...Alex was starting to feel a little flustered around a certain someone every time he went to the beach. Which could mean a whole other avenue for his supposed sexuality. He fumbled the ball he had been tossing around in frustration, it landed on the ground and he let out a sigh.

A "yoohoo!" caught his attention and his best friend Haley caught his eye as she waved at him, making her way over across the yard. Haley never seemed to have a hair out of place, and SHE was smart! She was one of the best photographers he knew and she wasn't afraid to jump into the unknown in order to learn something knew or get an amazing shot. She also didn't have her head in the clouds like some of the other people in the Valley.

Like Leah. Leah was always spacing out about nature and her art, her ex-girlfriend would show up every other month and try to persuade her to come back to the city but everyone knew that was highly unlikely, the new farmer had caught Leah's eye. Of course she wasn't the only one vying for that attention, Abigail (no matter how many times she half-heartedly flirted with Sebastian) was gayer than a rainbow, and she was also finding the new face in town an appealing one.

Alex sighed. He felt like he was the only guy in town who was really definitely 100% sure he was probably gay. Sure, Sam and Sebastian had this weird tension that had been going on since they were like, 17, but Haley figured they would just bone it out at college and then decide they were straight, they had just been looking for any other option than the ones available in tiny Stardew Valley.

She was probably right. There weren't a lot of options. Harvey was betrothed to someone out of the Valley, this was his assigned medical post but one day he would go back to wherever he was from to get married, then they would both be here in Stardew. Shane was a recently recovering alcoholic who still spent most evenings in the bar, he wasn't ready for a relationship by anyones standards - even his own. Maru and Penny were dating each other. Emily was fucking weird. Oh, and also had a thing for Clint who had a thing for Emily - neither of them had the guts to tell one another.

Better to focus on the simpler thing! Haley was standing there tapping her foot with a smile and waving her hand in front of his face, "Hello there space cadet! Oh? Are you back on our planet? You've been gone for so long!"

Alex snickered, "Yeah I'm back. Sorry. I was just thinking about how small this town is-"

"And how everyone is gay? Yeah. Well, except for the straights but they don't matter in this conversation. Alex, have you decided what to do about...your little crush?"

"No..." Alex didn't like this tone that Haley had adopted. It meant she was planning something. Something that would either work or be super embarrassing. Probably the latter.

Hayley smiled her gorgeous smile, picked up the football expertly, and linked her arm through his, "Come on, lets go to the beach."

________________________________

The beach was relatively quiet. Leah was standing by the edge of the ocean staring off into the distance. Sebastian was on the end of one of the piers sulking (it was sunny, which made it odd for Sebastian to even be there, but he was probably sulking about the weather). Elliot was outside of his little hut digging in the sand. He looked up and saw Alex and Haley arrive and blushed a shade of red that he was sure was visible to the fish in the ocean. Elliot liked Alex. Alex was strong, maybe skipped leg day but that was alright, and gave off this know-it-all vibe even though he actually wasn't the brightest bulb in the room. Elliot figured it was probably his face that he liked the most, it was a little plain maybe but he had a cute dimple in his chin and his eyes looked like he was ready to tackle everything head on. There was probably also something to the fact that he radiated a need to be loved, what with the death of his mother and the abandonment by his father, that made him such an attractive person to Elliot who just wanted to love someone.

Alex glanced in his direction and he quickly looked down at the ground brushing sand around aimlessly. He had come out hoping to find some interesting shells to add to a vase he was putting together for Leah's latest art project. Now his previous work was undone as he scooped the sand back to where it had recently vacated.

If only he wasn't such a coward. He would walk right up and ask Alex if he would like to come over for dinner. Of course...dinner would be cooked over his fire pit and that would probably cause Alex to wrinkle his perfect nose after being treated to the luxury of his grandmother's home cooking for so long. Elliot had no problem sharing everything else about himself through his writing, even through his music (which he modestly told everyone he wasn't good at but really he knew he was fucking great), why couldn't he do this one thing?

He allowed himself to glance up in the direction of Alex and Haley, trying not to stare for too long. They were tossing the football back and forth. He hadn't really thought of Haley as a sports kind of girl but he supposed she had as many surprises as anyone else. It wasn't like they were throwing the ball very hard anyway. He felt movement by his foot and looked down to see a very similar crab to the one that he had found in his pocket earlier and he gently shooed it away before looking back at the distant pair.

Everything went blank.

_________________________________

Haley and Alex got to the beach and started to toss the football around. It wasn't hard tossing, although you don't stay friends with Alex without learning how to throw a really tight spiral. It was nice and easy, simple, not flashy, just the way Haley wanted it to seem and the way she was going to get Alex to feel at ease before phase two of her plan.

Elliot was digging around in the sand and every once in a while he would look up at them and stare for a little too long. Haley pretended not to notice but she definitely noticed and counted on that to get the ball rolling. This time when he looked up he was blushing. She brought her attention back to Alex and the ball, usually she would say that Elliot looked like a smarmy smug asshole and she wasn't clear on why Alex liked him, but when Elliot blushed she could see it. He wasn't all charm all the time. Sometimes he could be less cocky and more vulnerable.

Which was exactly what she was going to use to give Alex the high ground to finally confess his feelings to stupid Elliot.

She saw her chance, Elliot hadn't been paying attention, she wound back her arm and threw the hardest spiral she could right at his head. He looked up just in time to catch it with his face. It laid him out flat on the sand and time seemed to stop. He seemed to be, if not out cold, totally dazed.

"HALEY! What did you do?!" Alex shouted in alarm and ran towards the fallen Elliot. Leah had turned at his shout and was slowly walking over but she had a look on her face that said she kind of knew what Haley was up to. The kind of look that said 'I see you bitch, I know what you're about, and I'm totally here for it'. Sebastian gave no indication that he was even aware of their existence. He probably wasn't. He was probably deep in concentration trying to make typhoon season come early or something.

Alex reached Elliot first and shook his shoulder. Elliot groaned and fluttered his eyelashes, there was a red welt on his forehead where he caught the point of the ball and, with Alex's help, he slowly sat up, reaching his hand to rub his head.

"What...what happened?" Elliot asked groggily.

"Ooooooh great Yoba! Elliot I am soooooooo sorry! The ball slipped right out of my hand! I guess I threw it a little too hard and it flew right towards you!" Haley started her apologetic (not) ramble to make it seem like an accident. He still looked confused.

"You caught a ball to the face man," Leah said coming up to the group, "and not in a fun way! It actually looked pretty brutal." She glanced at Haley and raised an eyebrow. Oh yeah, she definitely knew what Haley was trying to pull. "Tell you what, Haley and I will go find some ice and Alex could you help Elliot into his house? Maybe get him to lay down."

"Yeah, he might have a concussion! That looked pretty rough!" Haley said thanking Yoba that Leah seemed to be on the 'get them together' bandwagon. "We'll be back soon!" She quickly linked arms with Leah and pulled her away up the path to town. Lewis would probably be home and he was the closest person with a fridge. Willy would have been their first choice but he was away on a fishing trip.

_______________________________

Alex watched Haley drag Leah off and felt the panic rise in his chest. He was alone with Elliot. With. Elliot. Alone. He was going to fuck up. He was going to make a mistake. Elliot would realize how much of a dumb dork Alex was and never talk to him again. Elliot groaned again and looked up at Alex with a pitifully adorable look. Alex gave himself a mental shake and then reached down to help Elliot stand.

"Whoa there, you're a little wobbly" Alex said pulling Elliot closer and holding on tight, it wasn't even an excuse Elliot seemed super out of it.

The two of them slowly made their way to the little shack on the beach that Elliot called home, Alex pushed the unlocked door open with his foot and carefully guided Elliot across the floor to the bed.

"Thanks Alex. I didn't think Haley could throw that hard!" Elliot quietly exclaimed when they got about half way across the floor.

"Yeah," Alex grinned sheepishly, "I probably shouldn't have taught her to do it. I didn't think she would be such a hazard."

Elliot gave a breathy laugh and Alex felt butterflies in his stomach. He had only ever heard Elliot laugh deep from his stomach like he was forcing out a reaction and trying to be suave but this laughter sounded different, genuine. They had finally made it over the small expanse of the little cabin, moving slowly and carefully.

"You should lie down. I wouldn't want you to fall-" Alex started to caution the man he had been supporting but suddenly Elliot seemed to stumble and they were falling. Alex tried to turn them so that he would take the damage when they ended up on the floor. Elliot had already been injured once today on Alex's behalf and he would hate for it to happen a second time. But they didn't end up on the floor. Alex found himself staring up into Elliot's sharp green eyes, back to the mattress, and Elliot sprawled on top of him.

_________________________________


End file.
